


Dreamsharing

by orphan_account



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Dreamsharing, F/M, Fan theories, Fluff, Hat, Kissing, Prosthetics, Simplicity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 13:00:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13788285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A sunset in Castillo. A dream of a happy future. A moment of simplicity and peace within a world of war and pain.





	Dreamsharing

"I dreamt we were living one of these boring and ordinary lives."

"Oh yeah? Tell me about it."

"As I said, it's boring, Joel."

Sombra dropped her chin onto her chest, chuckling. She loved calling him this name. Some people believed the blogger Joel Morricone was the same guy, who had stopped an armed robbery on a ramen shop in Japan. The article he wrote was biased enough to make believe, that he was trying to justify his own actions. People fueled the echo chamber on every social media channel, and turned his name into the poster child of vigilantism.

Maybe Sombra had pulled some strings here and there to enable such an outcome. Just like any internet phenomenon, it was hard to find the original source, unless it had credited itself explicitly. She prided herself for pulling off influencing public opinion to such an effect, without anybody noticing she was altering crucial facts. After all it diverted all attention from the real person behind it, Jesse McCree. The less spotlight he was forced to avert, the less people went after him, trying to put him down. In turn, he was able to spare more time for her, like right now. That was something she would readily put extra hours in, and already had done in the past.

"That's not my name, Olivia," the cowboy protested, neither raising his voice nor his hat off his eyes. At the mention of that name, she lifted her head up, and turned it in order to look at him. Her jaw dropped, and she attempted a scandalized glare. The corners of her mouth were ruining it though. His hat was covering his eyes, but not his mouth, and she spotted a knowing smile. Efforts to get her face under control yielded no success, so eventually she gave up and just giggled away.

"Okay, you win," she surrendered. Jesse lead his human arm to the brim of his leather hat, and pushed it up. She could see his face now. Brown eyes glimpsed at her, surrounded by wrinkles, chiseled in by a turbulent life filled with all kinds of painful lessons. It had made him to what he was now. More importantly, it had led him to her. Sombra quit giggling and settled for a genuine smile herself, enjoying the view of him.

"Did they really buy it?" he asked, raising both eyebrows in mild disbelief. Sombra tilted her head and looked upwards, furrowing her brows in contemplation. It only took a second, before she leveled her sight again, and nodded with an affirmative sound.

"I think so," she added, judging her doubts proved insubstantial. When the russian woman and that omnic had done their lap around the town of Dorado to find Sombra, she had seen the ultimate opportunity, to make people stop poking at her identity. It had been only a matter of time until they would have stopped by the bakery. The bakery, which was run by Alejandra's mother. Nobody would expect a child to make up lies before strangers. She did not have to compile a story in the first place. Sombra had given her all the information she needed to know, and Alejandra only had to drop a name somewhere in the conversation. Olivia Colomar. The ploy was finished off the second Sombra had made a shocked face, as soon as the russian woman called her by this name herself. Unbelievable how easy people could be manipulated. The nosy duo also failed the simple task to check their info for plausibility. "Calle Colomar" was written on a sign by the marketplace in Dorado, and Sombra's ancestors had not achieved the fame required to have a street called after them. Hilarious how things worked out sometimes!

"Don't pull that girl too deep in with you," Jesse warned with a concerned voice, letting his hat fall back down on his nose. "She doesn't deserve this kind of life."

Sombra's smile dropped, and she gazed at no particular point at the horizon, spanning over the the ocean. Her long, fake nails started drumming on the wooden armrest, which belonged to the rustic bench they sat in. Actually, rather where she sat in and Jesse laid halfway across. No limit seemed to confine his laziness, but she pondered his warning instead of being amused.

Alejandra was not even an adult. Sombra "worked" for an international terror organization, at least she let them believe it. Jesse was right. Alejandra should not be forced into such circumstances, neither her, nor his. The Deadlock-Gang - which he used to be a part of - easily compared to the local Los Muertos, and the girl was involuntarily exposed to them. Sombra nodded, making a squeak of agreement. Her smile returned when his fingers gently stroked her back, right where the backrest of the bench ended. She let go of the armrest and leaned to the left, making the old bench squeal, ending up sprawled all over Jesse's side and chest. His fingers, which she had left behind on the backrest, followed quickly, bringing their accompanying hand to rest on the side of her stomach. She closed her eyes, enjoying the warmth it radiated. Holding on to the deeply content gleam on her mouth, she let out a relaxed sigh. Moments like these made all the hardships worth it in the end.

"I dreamt it, too," he hummed. Sombra had to giggle again. He was trying to be all cute by pretending to have done something special. She did not hate it, but sometimes the dork was just pushing his luck.

"Yeah sure..." she said, letting him have his moment. No, she did not mind his occasional klutziness. She snuggled deeper into his warm body, instead of worrying about it.

"I was lifting you up," he said, gently using his metal fingers of his left hand, to stroke the shaved side of her head. "You looked so beautiful."

Okay, now he was definitely pushing it. Sombra felt like retaliating. She opened her eyes, and turned her head in an attempt to look into his face, without moving too much. It would have been fruitless anyway. The damn hat was still covering his lazy face. She decided to enter his coltish ballet.

"Are you saying I am ugly now?" she provoked him, trying her best to keep a straight face. There was no way she could hold on much longer without bursting into laughter again. So much for retaliating like a true antagonist.

"I'm not playing that game, darlin'," he said and grabbed his hat with his metal hand, only to drop it right onto Sombra's face. She exploded into a belly laugh, and tried to take the hat off her face. Jesse had rested his hand on it, abusing the fact. that his metal arm was much stronger than a human arm. The little bastard! When her third try to pull the hat away failed, she pushed her hand right underneath the side of his ribs and twitched her fingers repeatedly. Oh yes, he was a ticklish one and right now he was deserving it.

"Okay, okay!" He let go of the hat to grab her wrist and release himself from the tickle-terror. She took the chance and removed the hat from her face with the other hand. Immediately she was missing the musky scent of it, his scent. Sombra looked at the hat in her hand, contemplating what to do. When Jesse tried to take it back from her, she shoved the arm holding the hat away, looking at him interceptively. She was not letting him have it. Holding his gaze, she put the thing on herself. Jesse let the arm down, with which he originally wanted to grab the hat. They kept looking at each other, her initially dominant gaze slowly fading into a puppy-eyed plea, until Jesse nodded slightly. His hat was sacred to him. Respecting that quirk was something she had learned in the past. He could get really mad over it. It would be unfair to provoke him now, since he never meddled with her tech either. Only her persona claimed to enjoy playing unfair. With him she could be herself though. That felt less straining. Affirmed, Sombra cuddled back into his chest.

But it was for naught. Repeated snorts expressed her reaction to the situation that had arisen. The hat had come off her head as soon as she tried to snuggle in, and had rolled off the bench until it fell to the stony ground. In an attempt to stop laughing she buried her face in Jesse's chest, but it was hopeless. He groaned, but ended up chuckling himself. It was the simplicity of his nature, that made her feel like the luckiest woman on the planet. She apologized to him in laughter, trying to feel bad for the comical outcome, but just couldn't. He only shook his head, but chopped breaths through his nose showed that he felt amused, too. The hat remained on the ground. A pity that it was out of reach.

"Do you believe in dreamsharing?" she asked after a couple of silent minutes. Maybe he was not trying to impress her after all. Perhaps he had genuinely dreamt something similar to her, and she grew curious to his view of things.

"I believe that you are an expert hacker."

"Who is playing games now?" she protested slightly annoyed. That's what you get for giving him the benefit of the doubt! Now she was convinced that he was definitely pushing it, and attempted to get up. However, his arm around her posed a resistance, which asked for serious effort. Before she could try again, a kiss on her forehead soothed her temper. Stereotypes was something she claimed to be usually good at breaking, but deep inside she could not deny to harbor the temper of a latina. Forged straight in the heart of Mexico. It flared up in record speeds, but could be settled about as fast by pushing the right buttons. Whatever deity you were praying to, knew, that Jesse had access to every single one of them. Who was the hacker now, she asked herself, enjoying his delicate affection.

"Maybe," he attempted to answer the original question in between of light pecks. "I've seen too much of the unexplainable sort to deny the concept, you know?"

Sombra nodded conceptively and tried to recall the dream again. He had mentioned, that he had been lifting her up in his dream. "You spun me around," she remembered from her own one. It had felt great, just the two of them. No omnic crisis, no Talon, no crazy world, just him, her and the sparkles between them. 

"Oh yeah, I did." His voice bore something content. For a second she forgot, that she was a wanted criminal, only at the mercy of keeping up her anonymity. She had adopted the name "Sombra" as her actual name, but the books still filed her person under another one. That is, if anybody even cared to remember her. Even Jesse did not know how she was originally called, but he respected Sombra's wish to bury it. After all it was just a word, he had shared his opinion in a past conversation. Again it was his simplicity, which shone through the crowd made out of all the other people on this planet. He was amazing!

She tried to remember the rest of the dream. "And this cute little beach house..."

"Farm house," he cut her off. "No crops, no animals, but wide meadows and a colorful garden," he retold his version. Sombra wanted to protest at the interruption, but decided that it was stupid to get upset about everything. They were here to enjoy themselves for a change. She did not always need to ruin it with senseless objections.

"Maybe we did not share the same dream after all," she observed instead with a tinge of disappointment. Whatever. Then he could tell his story and she would tell hers. Variety made the spice in life, right? 

She tried to remember more details from the dream. They had been at the beach house. He had lifted her up, spun her around and then kept her up in the air. They had looked at each other for a long time, until she had gazed into the horizon to watch the endless meadows, a little forest to the side... Oh are you serious now?!

"The farm house," she muttered in admission, half hoping he would not hear it. Of course it was completely in vain. He smiled a devilishly victorious grin at her.

"Don't you dare making fun of me!" she threatened, but he just boldly grabbed her hand.

"Sweetheart, I'm a simple man," he stated, as he traced the lines in her palm with his artificial fingers, not impressed by her threat. They might have been made out of cold and hard steel. However, Jesse was able to use his prosthetic fingers in a way, that could have fooled her in that regard, had she not known they were not human. "And at simple things I excel," he added. A naughty smirk entered Sombra's face.

"Simple man indeed..." she grunted, slightly wagging her eyebrows in a mischievous way. He averted his eyes, quickly pushing air through his teeth to express his amusement.

"Play nice, darlin'!" he demanded, turning his head back and leaning in for a kiss. She readily gave in to his distraction. It could have been a wonderful moment in the musky scent of his face, and the slight tickling of his beard, but there was some undertone of a flavor she did not enjoy. 

"You quit smoking in my dream," she claimed. Not only did those cigars stink of the worst tobacco. Their fragrance tended to stick to the taste of his mouth, making it challenging not to be disgusted.

"Intending to keep my promise," he stated plainly. "Once you've dumped them, I'll go clean." 

Sombra felt bad all of a sudden, remembering their deal. As much as she did not like him smoking, he did not like her working with Talon. He willingly believed her, that she was not following their ideology, and just used them as a tool to get bigger things done. Still it squicked him, and honestly, she couldn't blame him. "We both know you need that kind of motivation," he pricked her with a wink. Sometimes she got caught up in her persona a little too much. He was good at bringing her back, but she did not believe for a second, that it was an easy feat.

He produced one of those disgusting tobacco rolls from his pocket. She pushed the hand holding the cigar down, before he could put it into his mouth.

"I don't want to lose you early to something stupid like lung cancer," she explained, looking directly into his eyes now. Her look carried all kinds of worries she had about him. He held her gaze, but not with the expected admission of guilt. It was like looking into a mirror, seeing the same genuine concern in his face.

"I don't want to lose you early to something stupid like a bullet to your head."

Boom, went the dynamite, and she had nothing to reply with. Her wide open eyes were slowly losing their accusing touch. By smoking he might be risking his life in the long run, but she was toying with her life, right here, right now. He had caught her off guard with a simple truth. She realized she was demanding something from him, while denying his own request. Sombra had no right to do that to him.

Sombra broke the stare and let her head drop onto Jesse's chest. She was not in for the fame, even if her persona completely negated that statement. She just wanted to make the world a better place, for kids like Alejandra for example. Playing fair and square did not make anything happen. People were too selfish for that approach. Overwatch had been supposed to be like that, and now it rested disbanded and declared illegal in some archive within the United Nations. The idea wasn't so terrible, but the execution got botched in the most amateurish way possible. 

"You know I have to do this," she lamented. His hand, the one she had pushed down before, freed itself from her loose grip. Bummed out she registered it happening, but soon tender scratches appeared on the back of her head. She hummed, releasing her built up tension. He knew her spots so well.

"Never gonna be in your way, Sombra," he murmured into her ear. "I have faith in your beliefs, and will always support you however possible. You can count on me!"

Thinking about it, she did one of the stupidest things imaginable. Walking with one of the most ruthless terror organizations on earth, while playing them into thinking she was believing in their intentions, just so she could abuse their resources for her own agenda. For most people it would be comparable to a kamikaze mission. She could only stay alive, because she was good at what she was doing. 

But Jesse did not even bat an eye. He simply let her do her thing and supported her. In the past he had only asked her, what exactly she was planning to achieve. She had explained herself to him, and to her grand surprise, he had simply accepted it. Granted, they had ended up making the "quitting smoking" for "leaving Talon" deal, but never had he made a fuss about it, unlike her. She kept grousing about the smallest issues like a spoiled brat. But even then he just let her do it. How did she deserve him in the first place, she wondered.

"Have you answered the recall?" she asked, facing him again but resting her chin on his chest now. Jesse had been torn. Fundamentally, he was ready to do something more substantial for the world, than just playing the eternal vigilante. However, Overwatch still felt like a bitter taste in his mouth, even if they seemed to have shrunk to an inner core of people. It was comprised of individuals Jesse had called friends once, and would not hesitate to call friends again. There was a hard choice to make for him here. It would change everything. Sombra was just curious whether he had made a decision yet.

"If they need my help I'll be there," he said, looking at her. "No need to keep them updated to keep me updated." A wink. A dirty wink. Jesse had the great advantage that he could stay informed about this "Neo-Overwatch" by just wagging his eyebrows at a certain friend, and asking nicely. Her.

"Pfft... Fanfarrón," she snarled, rolling her eyes.

"Boasting about you is my pleasure," he said, kissing the top of her head again.

Sombra decided that Jesse was not pushing his luck. Instead he must have built a brick house about twenty lightyears outside of the border, and refused to leave it. In turn, she had no tool to punish him for making her groan internally over and over again. "Incorrigible" proved to represent the best way to describe him, but she refused to use it in her position. Her persona demanded her to be witty, manipulative, and an annoying smartass. But right here, with him, she felt like dropping the mask of an overconfident girl. Instead she opted for being genuine and... just herself for a change.

"Thank you!" she whispered. He did not answer by voice, rewarded her with delicate strokes on her back instead. It was more than enough for her. She turned her head, so she could lay it on his chest, looking at the setting sun on the horizon. So peaceful. The rhythm of his heart paired with the distant waves on the shore. If only they could stay like that forever.

"Flannel shirts suit you," she remembered from the dream. Red with a stripy, checkered pattern, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. No matter how hard she tried, she could not remember what they had been doing before in the dream. Perhaps he had been working in the garden, planting her favorite flowers. 

That would make him know more about flowers than her, she realized, slightly ashamed of the discovery.

"The hat, too," he added. Ridiculousness blew the humiliation away instantly and made Sombra giggle again.

"It's silly!" she pressed out in between snickers, unable to hold them back completely.

"And you like it." It was not a hidden question. It was a statement. Spoken with levels of certainty, which one would usually only dare to utilize, when describing something obvious. Jesse, however, ventured to include Sombra's preferences to the list of knowledge, which appeared crystal clear to him. The worst part about it: he was not wrong. The hat gave him a certain something she did not want to miss. Instead of saying something, Sombra reached down on the ground grabbing the hat, and put it back on his head. That done, she snuggled back into his chest. Yes, he looked more Jesse-McCreely now. The man got turned into an adverb, and was free to fight her for doing so, she decided.

"Not having you tangled up in all that tech was a refreshing sight as well," he stated, adjusting the hat to his preferred position.

"I knew you think me ugly!" Sombra played, not budging from being huddled up against him.

"Said it before, I'm a simple man, I like simple things."

It was supposed to be an equally playful response, but Sombra observed herself taking it serious again. She was being unfair, and she knew it. Looking into the distance again, she tried to compose herself. Why could she not just take a jab, and let it stay insignificant, she asked herself. She was sure, he did not even mean to taunt her.

"I'm sorry, this came across the wrong way," he apologized before she could collect herself.

"It's fine," she tried to defuse the situation. Something in her voice must have been terribly out of place, because he put a finger under her chin, and guided her head around, so she had to look him in the eyes. 

"Say that again," he demanded sternly. Faking all kinds of confidence, she opened her mouth to repeat herself. 

She couldn't. She wanted to say it, but it bore the vibe of a lie. It left her feeling doubly wretched now. Once more she didn't quite understand why Jesse had never just gotten up and left, fed up with her antics. Why had he never been looking for somebody less complicated and unfair than her. Instead he kept answering her calls, whenever she found a free minute from her activities, and rushed to meet her. She wanted to look away in chagrin, but he didn't let her.

"You are not simple, Sombra," he stated, slightly shaking his head in emphasis. "You are the most colorful butterfly I have ever seen." At least he was keeping his poetic attempts simple enough, so they couldn't possibly fail. Sombra felt undeserving to smile, but her face did not care about her very own interpretation of honor. "It would be too much for me to understand every single detail of you," he said. A pitiful sob escaped Sombra's mouth before she could close it. There was no reason to cry. He was just being a sap. Was that really enough to open up waterfall-city for her? "Maybe that's what makes you so exciting for me." Sombra wished that they could just freeze time in this very moment, and spend eternity on this rugged bench in the sunset over the village of Castillo, deep in the heart of Mexico.

Something buzzed in her pocket. Of course Talon had a mission for her when the world couldn't be much more perfect. She tried to push the tears back into her eyes, but they just squeezed past anyway. It was fruitless. There was a hunch of insecurity in his face, mouth slightly opened. He was not sure, whether he had hurt her. Sombra wanted him to know, that he did not, in fact. How could she convince him, that she was crying happy tears?

Who cared about the stench of cigars, anyway? She leaned in and kissed him briskly. One day everything she was going for would be done, and with it Talon would be no more. On the same day she could be sure to have earned a tobacco-free Jesse McCree. Right now though, she believed to deserve if he used her like an ashtray instead. She also knew, he would never even think about doing that. Focussing on the other qualities of the kiss, the scrubbing of his beard and the spice of his tongue, she scurried those self-depreciating reflections away. One day everything will be better. One day. Would it though?

"Do you think it's possible?" she asked him after the kiss was over. Either the remnant of her crying, or slight insecurity blurred her words.

"Never doubted for a single second," he declared in his stalwart manner, obscured by a grin and a cheeky wink. That upset Sombra a little.

"I'm serious!" she complained, but caught her voice immediately again. He was just trying to be a dork, there was no malice in his words, she reminded herself. There was no place for any part of her persona here, and she scolded herself for allowing it's attempt to surface. "Do you think we can become normal, boring people one day?" Sombra rephrased her question, repeatedly attempting to hold a gaze, but failing every time.

"No."

She looked at Jesse in disbelief. Had he become realistic enough to see, that she was a waste of time for him, after all? Thousand scenarios raced through her head.

"Normal and boring doesn't suit you at all, darling," he elaborated, "we should manage to live in a beach house one day, though. In peace and enjoying life." She dropped her head onto his chest again, heartily snickering. He just handled her overly dramatic character like it was some walk in the park on a sunny day with a cone of ice cream in his hand. Sombra felt like the luckiest woman on earth once again. She decided to try and stop being so difficult for him. Everybody had a limit, and that fact applied to his patience as well. She wished to grow old with him so bad, and did not want to sow any seeds of something, that could ruin this idea. "I think that's what you were trying to say," he finished his explanation.

"Farm house," she corrected him, lifting her finger and booping him on his nose in an overly circular motion. They had shared a dream after all, and she was just trash at remembering things. He closed his eyes at the touch and put on the widest smile he could manage.

"Whatever you prefer," he said. Sombra took the communicator out of her pocket. One would think she would not need one, as the hardware implanted into her was well capable to send and receive messages as well. However, there was just one measure more effective than a firewall to keep another hacker out of a system: Not connecting it! Nobody knew where the messages were going through in the first place. What would be the most crazy thing that could happen to the communicator? There was a miniscule chance that it would catch fire at an inopportune time through some external manipulation. She could just throw it away in that case. Actually, she felt competent enough to prevent it from happening altogether. Sombra had to uphold a reputation after all. The chance of really terrible things was still to high for her, to connect her implants to unfiltered data. Molten or burning implants were not on her priority list. There was a reason why she kept her separate computers, even though her implants were equally performant, and easier to work with on top of it.

It was as she feared, a text from Gabe with a miniature briefing. She refused to call him Reaper by herself. It was just too ridiculous. He was not fooling her, but she kept him thinking that he was. She lifted the device before Jesse, and made a regretful grimace. He nodded and removed his hands from her. She was already missing his touch, but business had called, and business did not have Jesse's eternal patience. With a long sigh she got up from the bench and stretched her limbs.

"What are you going to do?" she asked him curiously.

"Not sure," he answered, "you gave me quite the load here." He was referencing a data stick she gave him earlier, but her mind couldn't take a break from turning dirty for once. The smirk crept back onto Sombra's face.

" _I_ did?" she asked, tilting her head. Perhaps she was fifteen years younger than her age implied after all. Or maybe life just took fifteen years too long to present her this handsome cowboy. Jesse smirked as well, but it only took seconds until both of them looked at each other with the most serious faces they could muster. That was not intended. It was just a joke, but in the context of all that talk about their future, Sombra realized what train of thought she had set off.

"Maybe one day," he stated, staying true to his simple way of handling things. Sombra started fidgeting with the little communicator.

"Let's not decide that yet," she closed the topic. As soon as she saw him nod, she relaxed immediately. Crisis averted.

"When?" he asked. She started, but quickly realized, that he asked about something completely different. Everything would be so much easier, if stupid and evil people would take a break for once. She straightened herself and focussed on the present. The future would arrive whether she wanted it, or not.

"I cannot say," she answered truthfully.

"Don't know or don't want to?" he followed up. Truth be told, she did not know when she would be done with the Talon OP. There was always aftermath to sort out. Furthermore she did not know, how quickly she could switch her persona off again. Jesse really did not deserve to deal with her being a literal bitch, for the lack of more fitting words. 

Yeah right, and Santa was real, too. She would not be able to cool off quickly enough anyway, and he would be forced to work his magic again. She made a mental note to find something adequate to reward him for it... on top of all the other shenanigans they were already doing. 'You yourself are the incorrigible one!' she chided herself for her inability to keep her head out of the gutter, and rolled her eyes behind closed lids. Jesse did not need to know about her inner monologue.

"Neither," she said. He nodded in silent understanding. They did the talk about her persona before. He respected it, too. Sombra did not understand, how he could call himself simple, if there was so much delicacy of feeling within his nature?

"You will know," she promised. There was nothing left to say. She felt the unbelieavable urge to flip Talon off and stay with him. But if she wanted to succeed in her vision, she needed to go and answer the call. Settling for a compromise, she leaned in and gave Jesse a parting kiss.

"Be careful, sweetheart," he said as they broke it.

"You too, lindo," she responded, before turning on her cloaking device, and leaving the cowboy alone on the balcony, right when the sun was about to go down completely.

 

"fanfarrón" - show-off

"lindo" - beautiful


End file.
